Death Rattle
by Hard-Knock-Life
Summary: The corpse lay on the operating table, surrounded by all manner of terrible looking instruments and unfamiliar chemicals. She was given a simple set of instructions: bring the body back to life. And she did. Because if she didn't, the lives of everybody she cared for would be at risk. SakuraXShisui
1. Interception

**Disclaimer: ** All Naruto-related characters are owned by Misashi Kishimoto and Shounen Jump.

**Rating: **MA

**Chapter Warnings:** Blood and Gore

**Author's Note:** I know that I really should be redoing "Accelerant", but I seriously needed a break. Here's a pet project of mine resurrected from the bowels of my Idea Notebook. I don't have any plans for this story, since it's kind of a side gig. I'll see where this takes me, I guess.

Some notes about this story's universe… 1) Kaguya and Madara can suck it. They were crappy villains and a boring plot thread that Kishi vomited out because he backed himself into a corner. The Akatsuki are a greater scope villain, but Orochimaru is going to be the antagonist this time around. Tobito is just a traumatized kid with split personalities that Pein keeps around as a morality pet. No secret leader nonsense. 2) Sharingan is nerfed. Spinney eye got way too powerful. 3)Sakura will be a BAMF like she was intended post time-skip. In fact, she'll probably do most of the ass kicking during this fic. 4) All that filler towards the end of the original anime is getting the boot. Timeline is as follows: Team Seven is together for 8-10 months, Sasuke defects, Naruto leaves two months later, Sakura trains with Tsunade for two years, "Death Rattle" begins, (about) six months pass, Shippuden.

Edit 10/3/19:Revamped Kabuto fight ending, added new dialogue, got rid of icky word vomit, changed chapter ending, fixed backstory. 2,000 more words! Yay~

Without further ado…

:.:

**INTERCEPTION  
**_[ˌin(t)ərˈsepSH(ə)n]_

_The action or fact of preventing someone or something from continuing to a destination._

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Calm. Peaceful. For her first solo mission, it was beginning to shape up like an easy trip—a "there and back". Haruno Sakura, freshly-promoted Chūnin, glided through the treetops with the practiced ease of a seasoned kunoichi. Her black heeled boots dug into branch after branch, propelling her forwards at a leisurely pace. Dappled sunlight penetrated the thick forest canopy above and caressed her cheeks with warmth. The breeze, which twined through the ancient trees, was a soft whisper against her bare legs. Birds called to each other from somewhere in the depths of the forest. Tsunade-shishou had said to take it easy and that's what she was doing. A calming stroll through the woods and a day gathering medicinal herbs sure beat the mind-numbing hospital rotations she'd been confined to for the last year; at the very least, the smell of fresh flora was better than antiseptic any day.

Sakura kicked off of the branch of a particularly tall Black Oak, feeling the wind rush through her petal-pink hair as she reached her feet out for a smooth landing somewhere ahead. Her green eyes were alight with mirth. There was something freeing about travelling the "ninja road". It sure beat walking down below like a civilian. Sakura remembered how slow her first missions from the village had been, going that way. So very, very slow.

Her assignment was far to the north. The trip itself would be a day and a half at her current pace. That was just arriving at the grotto the plant called home, which rested at the farthest reaches of the Land of Fire and right next to the border with Hot Water Country. It was a long journey, though a pleasant one thus far. She probably could've reached the place in half the time, but she'd been instructed to enjoy herself and that's exactly what she was going to do.

How long had it been since she felt so at ease?

Sure steps faltered as her own mind answered her: not since she'd first been made a Genin. She'd been so very happy to learn that she was getting paired up with her crush: Uchiha Sasuke. And she hadn't even been _that_ upset to learn that the resident loudmouth, Naruto, was going to be part of the squad. Their sensei had been calm and collected—even if he was a bit of a sadist and he didn't quite give her the same attention he gave to her male teammates. But still, the boys had endeared themselves to her. She'd grown to love them, despite their faults. And they'd left her behind.

When her Genin team, Team Seven had disbanded—Sasuke-kun had betrayed the village in pursuit of forbidden knowledge and Naruto was travelling the continent with his own personal trainer and Kakashi-sensei had never been invested in her to begin with—Sakura had been lost. At first, she'd stuck to taking crappy D and C-Rank missions with another team that'd recently lost their member to promotion (Nara Shikamaru had been bumped up to Chunin, leaving Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji without the final member of a three-man team). The group's Jounin sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, was a far cry from Hatake Kakashi in almost every way. Apprently, the Jounin sensei was actually supposed to focus on more than one member of the team; who knew? She learned more from Asuma-sensei than she did from the man she was actually assigned to. The whole arrangement had only made her think even less of her aloof first sensei, whom she had only glimpsed a handful of times since Sasuke's defection. He hadn't even dignified her with a glance, face buried in his stupid _book _(which she'd been horrified to learn was basically glorified porn).

During this period of going through the motions, Sakura became increasingly aware of her own lack of aptitude. Even in school she'd been little more than a ninja in name only, only really good at the logistical side of things. Her taijutsu sucked, her genjutsu was deplorable, and her ninjutsu was nonexistent. It hadn't helped that Kakashi-sensei had immediately dismissed her and hadn't made any honest effort to help her improve. Then again, she couldn't pin the blame entirely on him; she hadn't exactly had the drive necessary to become a successful kunoichi. True despair had only set in after Sakura had been flattened by Ino in a "friendly" spar. Only a few months prior, during the one-on-one matches for the Chūnin Exams, they'd both been evenly matched. Then Sakura was laid out in no time flat by her smug blonde rival. It hadn't even been a fight. Ego thoroughly trashed, the pink-haired girl had wondered exactly what to do with herself.

So, she'd gone to the Fifth Hokage.

Senju Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin was world famous for her superhuman strength and her healing abilities; she had the power to tear a person apart and piece them back together again and again if she wanted. Despite the fact that the woman was gruff and a bit of an alcoholic, she'd been deemed the strongest in the village. Not just the strongest kunoichi—who had a bad reputation for being significantly weaker than their male counterparts—but the strongest _person._ Sakura hadn't expected the woman to take her in, yet she'd begged and pleaded and prostrated herself (because all she'd ever been was _useless_ and _weak_, and she was over it). Controlling her chakra was second nature to her and her excellent memory would make her the perfect candidate to become a field medic, she'd argued.

Obviously the legendary woman had seen a spark of potential in Sakura, because she'd been signed on as her apprentice by the end of the week. The pink-haired young woman learned to use medical chakra faster than anything. A medical prodigy, her fellow apprentice had once called her. It was a strange concept that Haruno Sakura—who'd only ever been smart and nothing else, whose parents were mid-level shinobi and nothing more, whose Genin sensei had written her off as just "a Genjutsu Type"—was prodigious at something. Tsunade-shishou hurled boulders at the girl until she was able to dodge properly, tasked her to lap the village until her stamina was no longer pitiful, and forced her to heal until her hands were marred with chakra burns. Sakura hadn't complained once. She pushed and pushed and pushed until she came home and flopped onto her bed. Tsunade-shishou was rebuilding Sakura from the ground up, turning a withered and neglected stalk into a strong and vibrant flower.

By the end of the first year of training, Sakura became an assistant medic and new resident at the hospital. Work, training, research: that was all that filled her time anymore. She spent her mornings working with the hospital's ever-rotating staff and shadowing more experienced healers. Never had she even considered taking a day off or using her accumulated weeks of sick leave. She felt truly at home in a white coat, diagnosing and healing the sick and injured.

Most of the afternoons were taken up by Tsunade-shishou's "tough love" evasion and strength training. Long had the girl's muscles been used to the punishment of these exercises; a tiny, masochistic part of her brain even found that she enjoyed it. In the evenings, Sakura holed herself up in her room, studying every medical text that her greedy brain could hold (which, due to her flawless memory, was a literal library's worth of knowledge). Scroll after scroll and journal after journal of Tsunade-shishou's own personal notes been tirelessly poured over every night.

After another year of this brutal schedule, Sakura felt that she was much, much stronger.

It was in the Chūnin Exams that the fruits of her labor were on display. The Exams were hosted in Grass for the first time ever. Sakura badgered her shishou relentlessly until the woman caved and allowed her to participate. In the end, she wound up entering the Exams with Team Ten at Asuma-sensei's recommendation. It was bittersweet, standing with teammates other than Naruto and Sasuke-kun. There was no Kakashi-sensei to cheer her on, either. Just before the Exams, he'd mysteriously disappeared on a mission. It hadn't surprised the pink-haired girl in the slightest. There was no room left for disappointment, since the upcoming event already had her filled to the brim with nervous excitement.

As it turned out, she was nervous for nothing.

Ino-pig and Chouji proved to be excellent foils for Sakura's "up close and personal" style of fist-slinging combat. They would keep the enemy Genin distracted while the pink-haired girl dove in close enough to land a devastating blow. The First Trial had nothing on Morino Ibiki's special brand of mental torture and the Second Trial lacked the horror of the Forest of Death. The Exams were trivial exercises compared to the first time she took them; Team Seven had been woefully undertrained and pursued by an incredibly powerful madman intent on stealing Sasuke-kun away (which he eventually had). Her second time in the exams, she was strong and confident and possessed a skillset completely unique to her. She'd progressed to the Semi-Finals in the Third Trial before being outmatched by a Rain nin that specialized in long-distance techniques. Despite the loss, she'd battered the other Genin well enough that his injuries had ruined any chance of him winning the tournament. First prize had gone to a well-deserving Hyūga Hinata.

The week prior, she'd been gifted her own Chūnin flak jacket, as well as the ability to take solo missions outside of the village. Haruno Sakura was the first to become an official Chūnin on Team Seven, before even a member of the prodigious Uchiha Clan. The thought made her just a little sad. Her boys weren't there to see it. Still, sweetness overrode the bitterness of her promotion. A party had been held in her honor and she quite liked the new perks that came with the position. It was freeing to be out and about to see the world—and this time she didn't have to worry about bloodthirsty missing Mist shinobi or power-hungry Snow ninja.

The pink-haired woman took a short breather at a teensy trading village called Gon, which rested due north of the Land of Fire's capital, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. She perused the wares of the merchant stalls and took a quick nap in a branch outside the town before moving on again. Her shinobi stamina and excellent chakra control allowed her to move effortlessly through the night and on into the hours of early morning the next day. By the time she neared her destination, she was lightly winded but otherwise alright. Her feet were used to the humdrum of walking nonstop throughout the hospital, but running along the trees was a different sensation altogether. It'd been so long that she had almost forgotten the feeling. The arches of her feet were sore. When she reached got home, she'd give them a good, long soak.

Sakura hummed a quiet tune under her breath, perfectly in time with the chorus of birds and insects that filled the air around her. The expansive, ancient forest of Fire Country gave way to the rocky canyons that marked the border between Sakura's home and Hot Water Country. Were she to continue to the northwest, she'd hit the Valley of the End… The place held bad memories for her team. That'd been where they'd lost Sasuke-kun. Further north was the Land of Rice, where he now most likely resided—in the clutches of the very madman who'd once tried to kill them, Orochimaru. Sakura let her green gaze linger on the horizon for a few moments. Her heart hurt in her chest and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. What a fool she was, still pining after the jerk that'd abandoned and insulted her. She huffed at her own silliness and wiped away and lingering evidence of her emotions. She was a shinobi and she had a job to do.

The young woman crouched at the jagged maw of a large crevasse and peered down into the depths. A dull roaring, the sound of the river at the bottom, met her keen ears. This was the right place, if she wasn't mistaken. Her assignment was a C class, low danger and low priority—perfect for a newly-promoted Chūnin. Sakura was to gather herbs from the a grotto at the bottom of the ravine, where the river (rich with minerals from the numerous hot springs that littered Hot Water Country) pooled and exceptionally rare plants flourished. In particular, she needed Moon Watercress, which supposedly grew along the rocky banks of the water.

Utilizing her excellent control, the young woman siphoned a small amount of chakra to the bottoms of her feet and the palms of her hands. The energy allowed her to cling to the sheer rock face as she slowly made her way down. Tight and narrow, the passage forced her to hunch over to place her chakra-infused hands on the opposite wall as she descended. She bumped her head once. Twice. The third time, she growled and had to hold back from cracking the rock in front of her using her massive strength. Tsunade-shishou would have a fit if Sakura destroyed the treasure trove of rare medicine… And the action might incite conflict between the two neighboring countries. She was right at the border, after all.

Fifty meters of shuffling—sometimes shimmying—later, she found her feet hitting the solid ground of the grotto. The near-underground river rumbled steadily next to her, swollen from rainy days upstream. Despite the fact that she was practically in a cave, deep beneath the sunlight above, the water was warm. Hot Water Country lived up to its name. Even though she was far downstream from the volcanic origins of the river, the water kept its heat. Sakura could feel the humidity coming off of it and curling the ends of her floral hair. She swiped an arm across her (unfortunately large) forehead, gathering the moisture there. Kami-sama, it was stuffy!

One lit candle later and she was delving into the depths of the darkness. The overhead light filtering down through the small canyon disappeared behind her. Hanging moss flowed from the ceiling and tickled her head and shoulders as she walked. From what her shishou had told her, the cave boasted and incredible biodiversity. Countless species of herbs and flowers grew along the water, many unrecorded subspecies with unknown attributes. Someday she'd have to return to the cavern and gather more samples. Beside her, the river gradually widened out and flowed into an underground lake. The eerie echoes of water dripping told Sakura that the cavern had gotten fairly sizeable. If anything, it was probably as large as the pond by the old Uchiha Compound. Sakura winced as the comparison crossed her mind. Of all the things she had to compare it to…

A gentle glow in front of her pulled her from the distracting and somewhat depressing thoughts. Ah. She settled down at the banks of the mini-lake and rested her candle on a nearby rock. The glow was slight, barely noticeable with the light source next to her. Still, Sakura's eyes were sharp; it was one of the side effects of being trained up as a ninja from childhood. The Moon Watercress was a fluorescent plant, growing up from the shallows to rest its leaves just beneath the water's surface. Tsunade-shishou had warned her that the plant was delicate. She'd have to handle it with care to bring useable cuttings back to the village for cultivation. It was simply too rare to leave to nature, and would be far less trouble to harvest if it were closer. She was thankful that the Leaf had expanded its herb collection as far as it had. The Hokage's private gardens were rife with all manner of exceptionally uncommon ingredients, from fungi to small fruiting trees. Hopefully they could replicate the Watercress's natural environment so it could be used in medicines at the hospital. Sakura smiled down at the little plants. Such a tiny thing with a wonderful use.

Moon Watercress was an incredibly powerful muscle revitalizer. It was used in extreme cases where muscle atrophy had surpassed what was treatable with physical therapy. One of the boys around her age had been treated with it after undergoing a spinal surgery that restored use to his legs. He'd been paralyzed for months, and the Watercress had helped him regain his freedom in record time! From what Sakura had seen, it was practically a miracle drug. It was one of the reasons her teacher, the village leader, was so keen on growing her own supply. Having a large amount could revolutionize the way the medics in the Leaf Village treated its paralyzed. It was also theorized to be able to completely regrow muscle tissue form nothing, though Sakura had yet to see those lofty claims proven.

Beside the Moon Watercress was a variant of Hyacinth she didn't recognize, which had burnt red petals instead of the much more common pastel ones. Idly, the young medic wondered what the plant could do when introduced into the human body; was it a poison or a cure for some ailment? Aside from the odd Hyacinths were some reeds which had no pigment aside from a tiny splash of green at the tips of the shoots. The movement of a small blind salamander caught Sakura's gaze as it swam into deeper waters. She hadn't realized just how teeming with life the place was, considering it was essentially a hole in the ground (with an incredibly strong cocktail of minerals flowing through it and the perfect climate for life to grow all year round, courtesy of the river).

The green-eyed woman got to work. Deft fingers found their way into one of the many pockets on her pink medic apron and fished out a storage scroll. It was best to transport plants in scrolls, since they were put in a sort of stasis. It greatly reduced the risk of the specimen dying on the way to its destination. She unrolled the scroll before her and activated the seal in the center with a bit of chakra. _Poof!_ A few rolls of cheesecloth popped out in a small display of sound and smoke, accompanied by a few small glass vials. She removed her notebook and her pen from the back pocket of her apron and began documenting the plant before her. It paid to be careful and record everything, especially when dealing with such a rarity. In crisp, practiced handwriting she jotted the temperature of the water and the speed it was moving. They would have to replicate the environment down to the tiniest detail to ensure success cultivating it. She took samples of the water and sediment in the glass vials and wet the cheesecloth.

Sakura found that she was most at peace when dealing with patients and plants. There was just something about grinding dried herbs in a Mortar and Pestle or listening to a child's steady heartbeat through a stethoscope. The soothing sound of the subterranean lake lapping at its banks allowed her to slip into a meditative state. She worked diligently, humming again in time with the water dripping from the stalactites above. Her fingers wrapped lightly around the underwater plants, near their roots. She tugged. A bit of the younger Moon Watercress was coaxed from the sediment below. The uprooting of the delicate herb kicked up some of the murk from below. Despite that she worked by candlelight, singling out the glowing shoots and pulling them up. Chakra pooled into her fingertips in a manner that had been rehearsed hundreds of times before. The pure energy extended a few millimeters past her fingernails and sharpened, bending and flexing over itself until it was an invisible razor blade. The Chakra Scalpel slid through the wet cheesecloth like a heated knife through fat. Each little sample was rolled into the wet cloth and sealed away.

Sakura wiped her forehead again, sighing as she looked over her samples. She had quite a few, but she had always been a perfectionist. Everything had to be done well the first time or there was no point in doing it at all. Some of that had been instilled into her during her upbringing by her staunch mother… other bits of that mentality were beat into her by Tsunade-shishou's fists. A medic must be able to complete the task without flaws, given that one wrong move could spell the death of a comrade.

The Leaf kunoichi dusted off her knees. Her joints popped as she stretched out her tired limbs. The mission was over as far as she was concerned. It'd been a resounding success—unlike those of her past with Team Seven. There had been no bloodthirsty ninja, no monsters in the dark. In a way, it was almost boring. Sakura quickly shook that thought from her head. "Boring" was never a bad thing in her line of work. "Boring" meant returning home safely another night.

She rolled up the scroll and placed it back within her pouch. It was time to go. Her muscles were looking forward to the run home; anything was better than kneeling on hard rock for several hours. Plus, she missed the open air and sun. The cave made her feel a bit claustrophobic, despite its natural beauty.

Just then, she heard a tiniest of sounds. A rock clattered somewhere towards the entrance of the cave. A creature, maybe? But what creature could make that descent through the canyon without breaking its legs or neck? She blew out her candle and pulled her chakra closer around her like a cloak. One of the first things she'd learned about chakra control was how to hide her presence. It'd been taught to all young shinobi in the academy. Without making a sound, she used what little chakra remained at her fingertips to crawl up the cave wall and onto the ceiling. If she wasn't in Fight or Flight, she might've laughed at how much she resembled a lizard. But she was fixated on the sound of shoes hitting the cave floor and coming ever closer. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She had jinxed herself by calling her mission "boring".

The steps seemed to get closer and closer, little by little. Who was it? Friend or foe? Surely Tsunade-shishou hadn't sent anybody after her? After all, it was such an easy task. Sakura was more than qualified to fetch a few herbs, as long as she stayed within the boundaries of the Land of Fire. But who else would know about it? And what did they want?

Sakura's mint eyes narrowed. Team Seven's bad luck on missions was determined to hit her solo journeys too, huh? She pressed herself further against the cave's ceiling, hoping to remain inconspicuous. If anything, she could punch her way outwards, but she'd risk sealing off an incredibly valuable resource to her village. Her only option was to allow the newcomer to pass by and sneak out behind them. Or to dispatch them without relying entirely on her strength, which she wasn't so sure she could do.

The footsteps grew more pronounced and loud. For a ninja—because what civilian would be able to complete that climb?—they sure were loud. That was cockiness. The person was either very stupid or very sure of their capabilities. For them to be privy to such a secret location, Sakura wagered that it was the latter case. She held her breath, waiting for them to pass. They stopped just beneath her. Had they noticed her? She could barely see in the darkness. Only the light from the crevasse at the cavern mouth was available to her. Surely the other couldn't see, either? Then again, she thought of the many ninja who possessed senses far beyond superhuman (The Inuzuka of the Leaf, Kakashi-sensei). Maybe they could smell her? The thought made her shiver. She wondered if she smelled fearful in that moment. Her heart pounded. Maybe they could hear it.

The person below her seemed to curse quietly. Probably male, she guessed from the voice. Young. She nibbled on her lip, trying to determine the best course of action. Her fighting style was too destructive; she'd need to lead him away from the cave. Then again, there was no way she'd be able to make it up the crevasse with a shinobi hot on her heels. It'd be easy for the enemy ninja to blast her with an elemental jutsu if she was trapped in such a narrow funnel. Like a rabbit in its warren, she'd be trapped. If she couldn't sneak or escape, she'd have to fight. There were a few close combat techniques in her arsenal that weren't too destructive. At the very least, they could buy her time. First, she had to see what the person below was up to. A quiet prayer was sent to Kami-sama above in the hopes that the shinobi would move on and she could sneak out without incident.

The figure beneath her seemed to be rifling through his bag. Sakura felt the urge to begin crawling away on the ceiling. A loose rock and a slip, and she'd be given away. The shinobi was suddenly lit up as he held up a candle. Sakura almost loosed a cry of rage when she saw who it was. Grey hair. Glasses. Kabuto! Her teeth gnashed together.

The young man worked for the aforementioned psycho who'd attempted to kill Team Seven during their first Chūnin Exam. At the time, the young man had been posing as a fellow Genin, and had even offered the aid during a few times of need. Then he'd attempted to take the life of one of her teammates while they were in the hospital. Sasuke… Kabuto had tried to murder him in his sleep. Then he'd fled the village for a time, whereabouts unknown. At least, they'd been unknown until he was found supporting Orochimaru's attempt to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village. Ever since then, the grey-haired bastard had been Orochimaru's top dog. His go-to henchman. The rumor mill hinted that Kabuto was Orochimaru's own personal medic. What was he doing in the cave with her?

She tried to bite back the anger and fresh hurt that surfaced when she saw his face. The childish, immature part of Sakura was urging her to ambush the older shinobi, to break all of his bones one by one until he gasped out Orochimaru's location.

Finding the snake would mean finding Sasuke-kun. The pink-haired kunoichi closed her eyes in vain against the barrage of images that crossed her mind: Sasuke-kun smirking at her, Sasuke-kun and Naruto lying deathly still during the Second Trial of the Exams, Sasuke-kun's back as left them all and betrayed the village to go to Orochimaru. Sakura's jaw clenched so hard she feared she might pull a muscle. She wanted to hug her former teammate, to heal the hole left in his heart by childhood trauma, to admit that maybe she'd been a stupid pining girl but shestillcareddamnit! All of this was right after she broke his smug, handsome face of course. And now all of those desires seemed possible. Kabuto was just beneath her, a veritable wellspring of information.

Still, Kabuto was ridiculously crafty, if not strong. He'd displayed combat prowess on par with a Special Jounin or an advanced Chūnin, and was privy to medical ninjutsu that the young woman hadn't had a chance to learn yet. Sakura remembered hearing through Naruto how the grey-haired jerk had healed himself without his hands. That alone made him dangerous. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't face him alone and without her strength. Admitting that to herself made her angry, especially considering how far she'd come as a warrior. There were some challenges she just wasn't ready to face, no matter how easily she could crush rocks or knit together a punctured lung with her bare hands. This was one of those challenges.

Kabuto surveyed his surroundings but thankfully never looked up. He turned and walked down the way she had just come, light bobbing with each step. The young woman watched him go further and further until it was a safe distance. She had to report to Tsunade-shishou anyway. If Orochimaru knew where the cave was… Sakura almost groaned. Of course he knew where the cave was! The Sannin had stumbled cross the cave on a mission with their sensei! The pink-haired young woman felt like a complete idiot. Still, it was ridiculous that Orochimaru had sent his pet to fetch some herbs the same time the Hokage had sent Sakura. Completely ridiculous!

She released the chakra form her hands and dropped down softly. Years of stealth training rendered her completely silent, even in heeled boots. She waited a moment, still observing the candlelight further down into the grotto. It hadn't moved.

Keeping her eyes on Kabuto's location, she slowly backed towards the entrance. It'd probably only be a short while before he found evidence that somebody had recently disturbed the cave. She needed to leave—now! Still, her instincts screamed at her to take it slowly, to get as close to the exit as possible before making a run for it. If she could buy herself those precious extra seconds, she might be able to get up through the crevasse before he even knew to pursue her.

Despite the hammering of her pulse, she kept her body under control. She didn't shake. She didn't misstep. This was her first real encounter without backup, she realized. There were no squad mates to watch her back, no Kakashi-sensei to bust out his Sharingan and dominate the enemy. It was just Sakura. And maybe she wasn't as ready as she'd thought. "Solo mission" hadn't quite sunk in until she was faced with adversity. Sure, there was freedom, but there was also danger that she hadn't considered.

Keeping her chakra firmly tucked within her body, she began the climb up the steep rock face. A millennia of being underwater had caused the small canyon to become almost perfectly smooth. The only way to grip it was with chakra, and she let out the tiniest bit. If she used too much, she could draw Kabuto out. Not to mention the fact that he might've brought some ninja from the Sound Village with him. Confident as she was in winning a one-on-one fight, she doubted she could hold her own against multiple highly-trained shinobi.

She'd wiggled her way a couple of feet up when her progress was halted by a hand grabbing her ankle. She let out a strangled cry as the strong grip tugged her back down. Her chakra-laden hands managed to grasp the smooth stone, until her fingers clasped too deeply and the rock beneath them shattered into a thousand pieces. She'd used too much strength! The rocks in this area were far more fragile than those she was used to climbing.

Her tumble downwards was halted when a knee slammed into her abdomen hard enough to make stars cross her vision. Kami-sama! It felt like her insides we rearranged. She was thankful that she'd built up quite the pain tolerance over the three years prior, or the blow would've left her winded. While it hurt, it wasn't enough to stall her counter attack. The kunoichi pushed off the cavern wall and hurtled herself towards her attacker. It took all of her self-control to keep from using her super strength and accidentally destroying the small cavern entrance.

When had he realized she was there? Had she been too noisy or was he just _that_ good?

The older shinobi dodged her half-baked rebuttal and grabbed the back of her head, attempting to slam her face-first into the opposite wall. She'd already hit her head enough times today, thank you! A concussion was the last thing she wanted! Snarling, she hurtled her arms out before her to stop the impact. Kabuto's slimy fingers roughly gripped her hair. She hated the feeling of people touching her hair; it reminded her off several years back, during the trauma of the Second Trial, when the female Sound kunoichi had pulled tugged on her pretty pink locks and taunted her with her own deplorable weakness. She wasn't weak anymore!

Her arm flew out behind her to grab his arm and shatter the ulna and radius into a million pieces. If it was a fight he wanted, she'd give it to him! If it was the last thing she did, she was going to make the creep tell her exactly where to find Sasuke-kun! Shannaro! Her strike was halted when he easily grabbed her wrist and twisted it against her back, prompting her to hiss through her clenched teeth.

"Long time, no see. How've you been Sa-ku-ra-_chan_?" The way his faux-polite voice wrapped around her name, mockingly, made her shiver in fury. He was underestimating her! She snarled but kept her mouth shut. It wouldn't do her any good to respond, only serve to make him more smug. A stupid smug snake. Or a snake's lackey.

"What was that, Sakura-chan? How rude of you not to respond to a question." Kabuto seemed more amused by her silence than anything. She could hear the smirk as he spoke directly in her ear. He'd gotten close to her, pressed up behind her. His height was greater than her own, just enough that he had to lean down. "Aren't you happy to see an old friend?" His lips pressed against the shell of her ear. "Don't you want to know how Sasuke-san is?"

She wanted to shout at him. She wanted to kill him! Anger tainted her vision and she lashed out at him, putting all of her chakra into her elbow and slamming it into the bastard's chest as hard as possible. The impact cracked her elbow guard in half and left her own arm tingling. Sakura felt his tainted blood spatter all over her as it erupted from his mouth. The impact had most likely shattered his sternum and upper ribs, perforating his lungs and rupturing his diaphragm. Good. Served the bastard right for holding her so close.

Sakura whirled around and pushed him away, getting enough distance so that she could reel her arm back and break his face. The older man stumbled, arm against his destroyed insides and bloodied foam dripping from the corners of his mouth. Despite the injury he'd sustained being debilitating, the man had a frenzied smile on his face. His teeth glistened with a fine veneer of crimson and his round glasses flashed ominously in the overhead light. He looked like he'd just heard the most hilarious joke. Red, red liquid poured from his nostrils as he wheezed out a horribly broken laugh.

"W-what was that? You've gotten s-so much stronger, S-Sakura-_chan_." He praised her, seemingly in good humor despite the fact that she'd practically liquefied his lungs in his chest cavity. "What would-what would you're precious S-Sasuke-_kun_ think if he saw you now: playing ninja."

His words made her want to batter him into a fine red paste. "You shut your damn mouth before I shut it for you! Permanently." Her fist flew towards his jawline.

Kabuto's wild eyes lit up. "Show me", he dared before launching towards her in a burst of speed. He shouldn't have been able to walk, let alone run!

The punch she'd intended to hit his face veered just past him and Sakura felt a sharp pain lance up her arm. He'd gently brushed against her, but it felt like she'd been stabbed. A Chakra Scalpel? Of course! Kabuto was a med-nin, after all. He'd cleanly sliced through her radial nerve, effectively cutting off use of that hand.

The kunoichi yanked herself backwards, pressing against the uninterrupted rock wall. There was nowhere to run, and her dominant arm was out of commission. How was he able to move? She was sure she'd all but sundered his internal organs and collapsed at least one of his lungs. He'd been coughing up blood moments ago, but now he was stalking towards her like nothing was wrong. Sure, Naruto had said the bastard could heal himself, but… this quickly was _ridiculous_! She had to learn that technique! Her uninjured palm pressed against the severed nerve in her upper arm, where his hand had brushed. It was taking her precious second to heal, and leaving her exposed without any limbs to defend with.

Kabuto caught the movement of her hand and seemed impressed, if only for a moment. Did he recognize that she was healing herself? Normally it was impossible to see the movement of chakra unless you could see the chakra, but that set of skills was limited to those with Kekkei Genkai. To most, it would look like she was pressing the wound to dull the pain. Her eyes narrowed. Did he know of her skillset? It wasn't kept particularly quiet that she was training to be a medic-nin, but most didn't know just how _far_ she'd progressed.

Sakura's throat felt tight as she swallowed. She'd have to kill him in one hit or destroy his chakra pathways. He couldn't heal himself that way, at least. But first she had to buy time. Her newly-healed limb was stretched experimentally. She wiggled her fingers in time to make sure that they worked properly and that there was no lasting damage. Chakra scalpel wounds could be dangerous to heal without knowing exactly what had been severed. It was only Sakura's extensive knowledge of anatomy that'd saved her.

Kabuto seemed unfazed by her recovery, even happy about it. There was a sort of delight that came over his face. "You're so different from that bratty girl I met at the Exams. Maybe it's Sakura-san, then?"

"I don't need your acknowledgement," the woman snapped at him.

"Of course you don't. After all, I'm not your precious _Sasuke-kun_," he mocked.

Propelled by her anger, chakra rushed to her fingertips. There, it folded in on itself again and again, until each hand was surrounded by a razor-sharp Chakra Scalpel. The man responded by jokingly holding both his arms up in a surrendering motion. He left himself open. Sakura took that as her opportunity to strike. If she couldn't tenderize him, she'd destroy his chakra network a little at a time and prevent him from healing!

The male caught both her wrists, bypassing the deadly blades, and she rebutted with a head-butt that echoed in the small cave. The impact shattered his glasses as well as his maxilla and glabella bones in one fell swoop. His grip loosened on her wrists and she took the opportunity to press her hands forward and sever the trapezius muscles in both his shoulders. His hiss of discomfort was drowned out by her roar of anger as she converted the chakra into her hands from blades to pure electrical current. Tsunade-shishou had used the jutsu on the man once before to scramble his systems. It hadn't worked for long, but Sakura only needed a few more seconds. Shifting her chakra away from Lightning Release, she dug her thumbs into the ball joint at each of his shoulders—right into where she knew a key tenketsu was—and began the second assault on his body. Wave after wave of her pure unfiltered chakra poured into his chakra pathways.

Kabuto went slack as his legs gave out from under him. As soon as he went down he was already trying to relearn his body's movements. Sakura was stopped from shattering his trachea by an arm raised clumsily at the very last second. The blow probably destroyed his bones, though he didn't seem to be too bothered. The mad, mad light never left his eyes. Was the creep seriously getting off on this?!

Kabuto's unbroken arm had already been healed, however shoddily, and his chakra-enclosed hand rammed into her side. She could feel the sickening sensation of the Scalpel rending her insides without even breaking her skin. It hurt! Stumbling back to grab at the wound, she slipped on her own unsteady feet and went tumbling into the underground river. The warm water was a shock to her, rushing into her mouth. The kunoichi flailed awkwardly until she was able to find her footing. She crawled on top of the waist-deep water, using chakra at the bottom of her feet to stick to the top.

The Sound shinobi still seemed to be reprogramming his body. It was probably taking longer than he'd expected, judging from the confusion that flashed across his face. His other arm also seemed to remain limp, as though it wasn't healing properly. Sakura smiled savagely.

"My shishou used that Lightning Release technique on you once before. We usually reserve it for patients in cardiac arrest, but it does just as well destroying the connection between the central and peripheral nervous systems. But I added my own special ingredient. I didn't just fry your nerves; I also sent my own chakra pulsating throughout your chakra system." Sakura would have to hug Hinata after this. It was only thanks to the Hyūga heiress's explanation of chakra points and internal chakra flow that she was able to scramble his network. The only backfire she'd experienced were the throbbing chakra burns on her palms.

For the first time since the fight began, Kabuto seemed to be something other than excited. His face showed his frustration and surprise. Sakura pressed a hand against her side and began stitching the damage inside of her back up. All the while, she kept her eyes on the crafty man in front of her. It was only a matter of time before he figured out how to move his body again. Even without stable chakra he was still dangerous. She wished she could let loose and open up a crater, but she didn't want to risk trapping herself so far underground. Not to mention all those rare plants and animals…

Sakura approached him cautiously, edging just around where she estimated his reach would be. How to kill him without touching him? Her hand clenched into the red fabric of her top. She was hyper aware that it was partially covered in his blood. She could feel the sticky substance hardening in her hair and around her neck and shoulders. It had created a sizeable stain on the front of his own blue shirt. How had he lost so much blood? He could be speeding up the production of plasma by exciting his cells at the most basic level. That would also explain the touchless healing. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to come up with theories!

"Tell me where Sasuke-kun is," Sakura demanded hotly.

Kabuto stared her down for a moment before shakily standing. "I have a better proposal, Sakura-san." He held out his uninjured hand. "Join Orochimaru-sama. We have need of somebody of your strength."

The young woman's eyes narrowed. "Not even for Sasuke-kun", she hissed, "would I consider degrading myself in such a manner."

"Then you'll never see your precious Uchiha again. It's only a matter of time before Orochimaru-sama takes over his body. There'll be nothing left of the boy you love. My, my, Sakura-san; isn't that so sad?"

"Shut. Up."

"Why should I keep quiet when you know it's a fact? It's been a little over two years since the last transfer. Only a little longer before Orochimaru's current body begins to fail him. Then what do you think will happen? Your poor, sweet Sasuke-kun won't even be able to fight it."

"Shut up!"

"After all, he came to us of his own free will."

"SHUT UP!" Sakura pushed as much chakra as her bettered system would allow into her foot and sent it careening towards the nin's smug mouth. She'd fallen for his taunts and she knew it, but all she wanted now was to silence him. For good.

He surprised her by pulling a senbon from behind him. He clumsily jammed the thing into the back of her knee all while dodging her haphazard kick. Her leg brushed against his hair. She'd missed by no more than an inch… maybe even less. The large needle was enough of a distraction for Kabuto to breathe in deeply and exhale some sort of horrible green gas. Poison?! Sakura's eyes widened and she pressed a hand over her mouth and nose before leaping backwards. Had she breathed it in or had she gotten out in time? The gas was beginning to move outwards, filling the small enclosed space. No time to think and no gas mask to use, she resolved to just breaking the poison down after the fight. It wasn't a great solution, but it was the only she had.

Without a second thought, she dove into the cloud of gas and rushed straight for the madman. She unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches in his direction. She had to end this. Now! He diverted her powerful chakra-enhanced attacks away from his vital organs using last-minute dodges and at times even sacrificing his own extremities. A rather aggressive jab for his carotid instead shattered all the carpals in his wrist. Kabuto, despite being broken and having his chakra pathways rent apart, still managed to put up a good fight. At one point, she'd attempted to put him in a head lock to choke him out. The grey-haired man was swift in slamming his damaged fist again and again into her kidneys. Another senbon had found itself wedged into the joint of her elbow and she had to dodge backwards to avoid a fizzling Chakra Scalpel to the face.

They fought in the most barbaric of ways, trading blows rather than jutsu. Every time Kabuto attempted to gather his rapidly-spiking energy or tried to form hand signs, Sakura was quick to interrupt with another heavy blow. The small cavern was far too compact to keep away from her and forced him back into close quarters after each dodge. The one time he'd managed to summon a Shadow Clone, the thing had poofed out of existence without a steady flow of chakra to sustain its short life. His Chakra Scalpels eventually became too difficult for his damaged systems and they failed him altogether when he'd attempted to sever her aorta. She'd thanked her lucky stars that it hadn't worked. That probably would've been the death of her. So instead he used his fists, throwing haphazard punches that bruised and battered her. For all his injuries, he was still far faster than her and had more combat experience.

The brawl—because it was less than a fight between two well-trained shinobi and more like a tussle between civilians—spilled out over onto the water. Kabuto seemed unable to keep himself afloat properly, his feet sinking every couple of seconds. Sakura took advantage of this, forcing the older ninja out into the deeper waters, where the current could sweep him under and down into the blackness of the lake. Kabuto stumbled, though his guard remained ever in place. She could see why the Snake had decided to keep the grey-haired man around: even with his body actively rebelling against him, he was formidable. His feet sloshed around underneath the water, just barely managing to stay above the surface. She had well and truly fried his chakra system. It brought a sneer to her face.

"Having trouble?"

The grey-haired ninja snarled in response and launched some senbon in her direction. Sakura was horrified to note that her world spun a bit as she avoided the projectiles. The poison had started to take effect. Her vision was beginning to tilt and rock, and nausea crept up her throat. What began as a tickle quickly turned into a full-blown urge to vomit as the airborne poison took hold. Sakura couldn't even begin to break the toxic substance down while fighting. Cleansing her blood required full concentration. That was something she couldn't give. Her legs and arms shook and her teeth began chattering. It was suddenly incredibly cold in the cave. She stumbled.

Then it was the smug bastard's turn to taunt her with her own ailments. "Not a stomach for poison, Kunoichi?"

"Drop dead!"

"I'm waiting for you to make that happen but you're disappointing me, Sakura-san." Kabuto looked faux thoughtful. "Maybe that's why Sasuke-kun left? You're a disappointment."

Sakura, shrieking in anger, lurched forward and tackled the grinning monster. They both sank under the surface for the water for a moment, too distracted or weak to maintain the control necessary to float. There struggling and flailing and panicking as neither party could quite overwhelm the other. Sakura's vision swam (an apt description as they reached the bottom of the underground river). Kabuto's injuries seemed to have finally been catching up to him; his attempt to choke her out was weak at best. They writhed on the floor of the river, churning the water and kicking up sediment. Crazed grin splitting his face, Kabuto's broken and mangled hands snagged themselves into her hair and clothing.

Sakura's vision blurred and twisted. Black spots appeared in the corners of her vision and her lungs burned as though they were on fire. She was drowning! Panicked, she lashed out at the man holding her under the water. Her fists pounded into his stomach repeatedly. The strength of each blow caused the man to sink deeper into the soft mire. Blood poured from his mouth and mixed with the water, getting into her eyes and mouth and nose. She kept hitting blindly, hoping to make him let go. Let go, let go, let go, she cried in her own mind. Frantic, she battered the body underneath her. Eventually his fists uncurled and she was able to scramble to the surface.

Coughing and gurgling, she pulled herself weakly from the water. More water still was expelled from her lungs as she hacked. Bloody froth welled up from her throat and she wasn't sure if it was her own or her opponent's. The thought made her sick.

The pink-haired woman used her forearms to draw herself even further form the water's edge. She rolled over and curled into a ball next to the river, half-expecting Kabuto to erupt forth and kill her. He never did. In fact, his body drifted from the depths and floated on the surface, face-down. His blood pooled around him and dispersed into the water of the underground river, where it was carried into the lake downstream.

He was dead? Disbelief coursed through her. Had she won? Had she beaten the older man? There was the expectation that at any moment the body floating face-down would pop out of existence, revealing itself to be a clone. Maybe the room would shift and the last minutes of her life would have all been a genjutsu. Nothing happened. Sakura's sight began dimming and blackening as more dark spots appeared in her vision. She was losing consciousness with poison still in her body. At first glance, the structure of the poison seemed to be something ricin-based. She tried to break it down and purge it from her body. The substance was tough to reduce down in her exhausted and addled state. Her insistence pushed the worst of the mess out of her bloodstream and into her stomach, where she was able to expel it. She couldn't even move from her spot, she was so exhausted. Every convulsion of her stomach weakened her. She leaned over and heaved onto the rock next to her, choking up more and more vile liquid.

:.:

The overhead light had dimmed and faded into practically nothing by the time Sakura felt human enough to move again. The poison still lingered in her system, though the worst was out. Her chakra levels were dismal, but enough to heal herself and climb out of the hellhole. She had survived, but only just (skin of her teeth, like every mission with Team Seven). The environment had put her at a severe disadvantage. If she'd had the energy to move and dodge and the freedom to smash and destroy, she probably wouldn't have struggled so much. Then again, the close quarters had put her opponent right in the path of her fists. Maybe that counted for something, maybe it didn't. The bottom line was that she'd survived her first solo mission, despite the terrible luck that seemed to plague her.

Weary green eyes surveyed the cave and came to rest on the corpse of her opponent. He was floating exactly where she'd left him. A large part of her couldn't believe that she'd won. She'd won, she was alive. She'd won, she was alive. She'd won… Sakura leaned forwards and pressed a hand to her lungs, assessing the damage. The poison was mostly gone, but it'd fried some of the blood vessels in her left lung, and killed more of the tissue in her right. The damage was reversible and the amount left within her system was negligible. She'd survive.

Kabuto was dead and Orochimaru had lost his main medic and lab partner. With any luck, this would slow down the Sannin's research considerably. She could only hope, for the sake of her childhood crush. Kabuto's defeat was bittersweet, since they'd lost a link to Sasuke. Maybe someday they'd find him? After all, Tsunade-shishou was keeping her ear to the ground. The woman was surprisingly well-connected with many of the drinking and gambling establishments throughout the Continent (Sakura had only been mildly disappointed in her shishou). Maybe someday he would make their way back to him on his own? It was a ridiculous dream but she'd served Yakushi-Friggin'-Kabuto a hand-to-hand beatdown and it was perfectly fine for her to hope for things that were equally crazy to happen!

Sakura stared at the palm of her own shaky hand. She'd killed him with her own two fists, without any help. But she did have help, she realized sadly. Kabuto had severely underestimated her, allowing her to get several good hits in. He'd cockily and needlessly expended his chakra on minor wounds. He'd relied on that very ability so much that he allowed her to get close, even seemed to welcome it. It'd allowed her to plunge his Chakra Pathways into complete chaos and hinder his movement considerably. There were chakra burns on her palms, where she'd leased her own energy into his system.

It'd taken too much out of her and exhausted her more than she should've risked.

In a real fight, with an opponent taking her seriously, she wouldn't be able to use that technique. Not without refinement, anyway. She'd lost too much chakra to fight on a large scale, both from forcing her body to use an elemental nature that she wasn't comfortable with and from pushing it into another human. It simply wasn't meant to be used so recklessly. Had her control been any less, she'd probably have run the risk of slipping into a Chakra Exhaustion-induced coma and dying.

The viridian-eyed woman took a moment to collect herself. She was aware that she needed to seal the body, bring it with her. Unfortunately, she didn't have the chakra to activate such a complex seal and wasn't too keen on sharing a room with a corpse while she recovered. She'd crawl out and sleep in a tree before returning in the morning. That seemed like the best course of action, at least for the moment. Gon was too far away to rent a room for the night and she doubted she'd be welcomed back considering the state she was probably in.

Legs stiff and body protesting, she hauled herself out of that hole. Sakura was at the very edge of losing consciousness yet again as she reached the top of the crevasse. The poison that still raced through her system caused her to expend far more energy than was necessary, just to calm the erratic shakes that pulsed through her limbs. Her fingers finally came into contact with cool grass. The soft blades felt like heaven compared to the chakra blades she'd felt earlier.

Shaking limbs awkwardly pulled her dead weight from the hole. Her legs floundered uselessly behind her, searching for anything to grab on to. She was the very picture of "useless" at that very moment. Exhausted, she pulled herself underneath a nearby tree. It acted as shade from the sun—which was quickly setting. The bright light stung her eyes, which had grown accustomed to the underground dim. She closed the sensitive orbs and leaned further back into the rough bark of the tree.

There, she wondered exactly Kabuto had been doing in the cave. Maybe he'd been looking for Moon Watercress much like her? Orochimaru's arms had been horribly paralyzed in battle with the previous leader of their village, the Third Hokage. Maybe the Snake Sannin was hoping that the near-legendary restorative powers of the herb would heal his atrophied limbs? As far as she knew, his arms were completely rotted from the inside out; that was how Tsunade-shishou had described them, anyway. Shaking her head, she settled into a fitful slumber.

Finally, her vision darkened until nothing remained but blissful unconsciousness.

:.:

_"__Please don't leave me! Take me with you!"_ Sakura winced at the pathetic tone of her own voice. _"I'll scream" _Sasuke left her lying on a stone bench, cold and crying and unconscious.

_"__I'll miss you, Knucklehead… So come back to me safely, okay?" _Naruto had his back to her. He was leaving.

_"__What do you mean, Sensei? You don't want to teach me anymore?"_ Kakashi-sensei looked at her with what she believed to be pity. _"Am I that pathetic?_

Sakura was alone in the darkness. Alone, again. This time there was no Tsunade-shishou to pull her out of it. The only sensation Sakura had was that of a sinister chakra bearing down on her. She was too tired to awaken on her own.

"Somebody, help," she pleaded. The darkness was silent.

:.:

_To Be Continued…_

:.:

**Author's Note:******Aaaand that's it for now! Don't worry because Sakura is going to get her time to shine! She's only having trouble now because plot points need to happen to get the story rolling.

This story will follow Japanese social conventions, given that I think that'd the best way to replicate the feel and emotional connections of canon. Surnames will be before given names, since that's how it's done in Japanese. Honorifics will be used throughout the story, both to represent the respectful character that Sakura is in canon, but also to denote the subtle changes to her feelings regarding others around her. As she grows away from/closer to those around her, the way she refers to them will evolve. I wanted to do this because I felt it would be best to reflect these changes within the story in an organic way, rather than insult the reader's intelligence by constantly spelling things out.

Some notes on the honorifics used in this story (Skip it if you're already aware):

_"__Chan" is a diminutive, usually used for girls but can also apply to young boys. It can reflect affection or ca be used to convey teasing. If used by a person in a certain tone, the diminutive can even be mocking or taunting. Kabuto originally calls Sakura this to represent that he sees her as little more than a scared little girl. Naruto, on the other hand uses the suffix in its proper context, showing that he cares for the girl a great deal._

_"__Kun" is a diminutive and often viewed as the male equivalent of "Chan". It's used to represent Sakura's warm feelings towards Sasuke, as well as her casual dismissal of Naruto—whom she doesn't usually have an honorific for. She may occasionally punctuate his name by adding "Baka(Dummy)" to the end, though it's usually used in a comedic or joking manner._

_"__San" is an honorific used to denote respect, like something you would call your elder or superior in society. Kabuto's use of the honorific attached to Sakura's name was a sort of acknowledgement of her skills, as well as a way of mocking her during the battle. Basically he was taunting her by implying that she wasn't respectable before._

_"__Senpai" is used in organizations to defer respect to older coworkers. Seen used amongst the senior shinobi._

_"__Shishou" and "Sensei" can be used to reference a person in a teaching or coaching role. "Sensei" is seen as the less formal of the two and is often used to refer to doctors as well. "Shishou" is much more formal and is more often translated as "Master(Master of an art, rather than one's owner/keeper)". Sakura's feelings of intense gratitude and kinship, as well as her acknowledgement of Tsunade's skills, are reflected in the way Sakura refers to her. Kakashi on the other hand is given the same formality one would any teacher._

_"__Sama" and "Dono" are honorifics used to denote extreme respect. "Sama" is often used for leaders of a faction. The refusal to use "Sama" when referring to a person in a high stature can be seen as a lack of respect or an insult. Sakura refuses to use this when referencing Orochimaru, indicating her lack of respect for him. "Dono" is far less commonly used, having once been a way to refer to royalty or nobility._

_"__Teme", "Dobe", and "Baka" are often used in reference to/by Naruto or Sasuke—usually this is only when they refer to each other. These are not necessarily proper Japanese suffixes, but are instead used as insults ("Teme" is comparable to "Bastard" in the English language, while "Dobe" and "Baka" are both similar to "Idiot" or "Fool"). When tacked on the end of a name, these adjectives become trait-defining. It's the equivalent of Sasuke referring to Naruto as "Naruto the Village Idiot", essentially._


	2. Conviction

**Disclaimer: ** All Naruto-related characters are owned by Misashi Kishimoto and Shounen Jump.

**Rating: **MA

**Chapter Warnings:** Blood and Gore. Orochimaru… Just, Orochimaru.

**Author's Note:** New chapter, new chapter! Glad to see that everybody is enjoying it so far! The fight between Sakura and Kabuto was pretty hard to write, not gonna lie. I'm going to try my best to make the fights as visceral and in-depth as possible. I miss the up close and personal fights from Original Naruto, so expect more hand-to-hand and cunning, rather than extravagant jutsu usage.

In other news… I have no idea where I'm going with this stoooory! My Beta will go through and edit at some point in time. I'm posting chapters to get them out to you guys until she gets back from her vacation in Alaska. Until then, please bear with the minor spelling mistakes!

Also, updates to this story will probably be a bit sporadic because my current pet project is trying to get my other fanfiction out of what is essentially Development Hell.

Pervious chapter was edited and some changes made, so check it out! The story summary was also tweaked.

Without further ado…

:.:

**CONVICTION**  
_[kənˈvikSH(ə)n]_

_A firmly held belief or opinion._

:.:

_"__I'll miss you, Knucklehead… So come back to me safely, okay?"_

The familiar image of Naruto's retreating form—trotting off beside his new mentor and waving as he left the village—was one she'd dreamed about before. It usually appeared alongside the nightmare of Sasuke-kun's own departure. Haruno Sakura couldn't count the number of times she'd woken up, begging for her boys not to go (_"Please don't leave me! Take me with you!"_). She'd once awoken, sitting up and grasping pitifully at something she couldn't see. Maybe she'd been following Naruto, maybe Sasuke-kun. She was always following somebody in her dreams. No matter what she did, her leaden feet never seemed to move any faster.

She awoke to an unfamiliar room, confused and exhausted. Riddled with aches and pains, her body protested as she sat up. What had she been doing before? It felt like she'd been hit by a carriage! She tried wracking her brain but there was nothing but fuzz and static. A palm pressed against her temple was quickly drawn back after it came into contact with chunky, matted hair. Red flakes were stuck to her sweaty skin. Dried blood. Suddenly, she was alert.

Mint green eyes surveyed their new surroundings. Gone was the familiar landscape of the Land of Fire, with its giant trees and wild forest floor. It was instead replaced by the dismal sight of a stone room. The young woman sat up in the dusty cot she'd been provided. Only occupied by her makeshift bed and a small end table, the space was incredibly bare-bones. No light sources came from within the room itself. Rather, what little there was shined in from between the bars on a metal cell door. What it lacked in comfort, the room made up for tenfold in sheer creepiness. Her hands shook as she reached out to touch the opposite wall—for the room was so small that her short arms could cross its span easily. Bare fingers came into contact with the cool stone and her breathing turned heavy.

There was something familiar about the patterning of the wall. It was made up of dusky bricks, which arched up and over each other and created a series of intersecting spirals. She'd seen the stonework before, recognizable as it was. Maybe it was the result of an Earth Release jutsu? The stone seemed too tightly packed for it to be anything else. Sakura squinted in the dim light. Her head hurt too much to think. What had she been doing? It felt like she'd done head-to-head with her shishou in a drinking competition. In a vain attempt to alleviate the pressure behind them, she pressed the heel of her palms into her eyes and rubbed. She was only half aware exactly how filthy she was. Grit and grime clung to her like a second skin. Kami-sama, she needed a bath! That was the first thing she was going to do after turning the wall into paste and knocking around the bastard who'd decided to take her.

Fists curling she struck at the wall with all of her strength. To her surprise the strong earth didn't cave under her whims. Large chunks of the brick flaked off and fell to the floor with a clatter, which echoed around the prison (because that was the only thing it could be at this point). Growling in frustration, she smashed her fists into the wall over and over again. When she halted her attack her knuckles were bloodied and the wall was missing a few more chunks. Still, it would take her _hours_ to smash through. What was wrong?! She should've been able to crumble the wall into nothing; she could tear down mountains with her bare hands, dammit! Feeling a deep sense of dread, she reached for her chakra… only to find nothing. Her chakra was gone! It was locked away somewhere beyond her reach.

Calm down, Sakura, she admonished herself gently. Tsunade-shishou had taught her how to escape captive situations, even if she no longer had access to her chakra reserves. She was smart, having graduated as top kunoichi from her academy class, and still much stronger than the average person. If there was a way to get out, she'd find it. But first… The basics.

Where was she?

Shouts of agony were a low buzzing at the peripherals of her keen senses. Wherever she was, it wasn't pleasant. Of that, she could be certain. A guest didn't wind up in a cell; a prisoner did. The thought made her feel ill. Was she a political prisoner? Sure, it wasn't widely advertised that she was the apprentice of the Fifth Hokage, but that was nothing a little research wouldn't uncover. She could be used as a bargaining chip against the Leaf.

Last she could recall, she'd been at the border between Hot Water Country and Fire. It was possible that she'd gotten caught at the border. Hot Water was famed for their Earth Release and Water Release ninjutsu. It would've been child's play for one of their architects to fashion the compound. Something in her gut told her that theory was wrong, though. The country to the north was incredibly strict about maintaining non-aggression pacts with the major shinobi villages. Hot Water wasn't a place founded on military might, so it always avoided conflict. If anything, the country was more focused on being a tourist destination than fighting.

Sakura got up in her tiny cell and began pacing. Her clothes were stiff and crackled with each movement. She was covered in muck and grime. Her feet were bare, shoes having been removed. Gone were her vibrant clothes, which had been replaced by nondescript grey rags. Nothing about the ensemble was distinctive enough to hint at her captors. It could've been either one of the powerhouse ninja villages further to the north: The Village Hidden in the Stone or the Village Hidden in the Clouds. The Leaf wasn't exactly on good terms with either. The Cloud Village wasn't exactly interested in negotiations or capturing live prisoners, preferring to remain isolated high up in the mountains. The only things they brought back with them were the bodies of those who carried Bloodline Limits. And Stone would've probably killed her without hesitation. Neither were the "capture and keep" type. That was more Mist's MO, but Water Country was too far to the southeast and separated from the Continent by a massive ocean.

Great, she had no answers. She wanted to tear her hair out in frustration.

What did she remember?

Nothing. Well, she remembered having been sent on a solo mission. It'd been a fairly simple task: gathering herbs and habitat samples for cultivation. So what was she doing locked away in a cell? Her stomach dropped as she pondered. Her trail had taken her past the village of Gon, where she'd browsed the shops. Then there was a blank wall in her mind. The hours before she went unconscious were a mishmash of colors and sounds that didn't quite blend into a coherent picture. There was a cave? Water? Her lungs burned and she was struggling against something. So, she'd fought against somebody and been captured? That seemed the most likely. The blood was probably a byproduct of the battle.

Sakura pulled her once-pink hair over her shoulder, wringing it nervously as she thought. Her hair had once brushed a little past her chin, having been cut off during the Second Trial of her first Chūnin Exams. After that, she'd done little to maintain the flowery locks. During the first months without Team Seven her self-esteem had been too low to strive for personal maintenance. After she'd started training with Tsunade-shishou, she'd simply been too busy to get it cut off. Her mother, Haruno Mebuki, had offered on several occasions. While Sakura appreciated the offer, the last time Mebuki had cut the girl's hair she'd wound up with one side an inch or so longer than the other. Sakura had taken to wearing it back in a low braid, but it'd come undone at some point during her capture or the mission beforehand.

Head throbbing in time with her erratic heartbeat, Sakura rubbed her temples—partially to quell the pain and partially to coax out the fuzzy memories. She absentmindedly combed her fingers through her hair, tugging out the debris that'd somehow found its way into the tangled mess. More flakes of dried blood emerged and caked underneath her nails and on her palms, standing out against the pale cream of her skin tone. So much blood. It'd been a brutal fight. A cursory set of pokes and prods at her scalp determined that the blood hadn't come from her head, meaning that the gap in her memory wasn't the result of head trauma. That was a mild relief; head wounds could be dangerous if left unchecked. She was growing frustrated by her inability to reach her chakra to do a full body scan.

She paced in that little cell, doing basic diagnostics. According to her internal clock, less than an hour passed before the wails outside her cell turned into screams of fury and horror. Sakura pressed her face against the cool metal of the bars. Beyond her "room" was a dimly lit hallway, punctuated every now and again with torches and absolutely filled with cell doors much like her own. Her curious hands wrapped around the bars of her cell and _pulled_—normally something as flimsy as untreated iron would easily bend to her will, but she lacked access to her chakra and was weakened significantly from travel and a battle. The metal groaned at her abuse as she tugged harder and harder. Sweat beaded on her pale forehead at the effort it took. Her teeth revealed themselves in a smug grin as the bars eventually gave way to her raw strength. The hole she made was sizeable, probably something she could've slipped through as a fresh Genin. As a Chuunin who'd hit puberty running, though, she wouldn't be able to fit through the opening. Not yet. She panted as she again tried to shift the bars of her cage. They groaned and whined at the strain but only moved a few centimeters this time. Roaring in anger, she pulled her bloodied fist back and smashed it into the door, causing it to vibrate in place.

A chuckle broke through her rage and she sprang back, knocking against the opposite stone wall. Bastard! She hadn't even sensed his approach. Her hand gripped the upper part of her arm, fingernails digging into the soft skin and drawing blood. Pink baby hairs at the nape of her neck stood at end and shivers raced down her spine. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like, the man's all-consuming killing intent. It'd been the same during her first Chunin Exams, she realized. Only this time she wasn't scared of him. Intimidated, yes. But scared? Hell no!

Orochimaru of the Sannin was beyond the cell door. His ghastly pale face was contorted into a mockery of a smile. Once he'd been on a Genin team with Sakura's shishou, led by the Third Hokage himself (the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, whom Orochimaru had brutally murdered in his own quest for immortality). She'd seen pictures in Tsunade-shishou's home of the three Sannin as children. Still, it was hard to envision the slimy serpent before her as anything but a monster: who'd succeeded in stealing away Sasuke-kun, who'd attempted to flatten her village during the Third Trial of the Chunin Exams so long ago, who'd killed the kindly old man that lead the village and so many others that day. She _hated_ him!

The Snake's voice was deceptively gentle as he spoke to her. "Good morning, Sakura-chan. Tell me: how did you sleep?" Sakura remained silent, seemingly prompting amusement from him. "I do hope the accommodations are to your liking?"

Sakura's eyes lit with a fire. "Actually, no. I'd like to be anywhere but here, if possible," she snapped.

Orochimaru's gold golden gaze travelled her features, then fixated somewhere behind her. "I see you've already tried redecorating. Were the walls too plain?" Ah, so he was staring at the mess she'd made of the brickwork across from her bed. "I assure you, you need only ask and we'll repaint them. No need to color them red with your own blood." The man chuckled darkly as Sakura hid her battered knuckles behind her back.

"The plan was to tear the wall down, actually."

"Yes. You're so very similar to that dear Hokage of yours, aren't you? Breaking things that aren't yours." Orochimaru's head cocked to the side as he observed her flinch. "I know that she's spent the last few years training you, so I took some extra precautions." He gestured to his throat. "I couldn't have you bring the entre compound down onto our heads, after all."

Sakura's hand's travelled up to her throat, mimicking the snake's action. She let out a stuttering gasp when sensitive fingertips brushed up against raised skin that circled the entirety of her neck in intricate patterns. A vile foreign chakra pulsed just beneath her skin, sealing her own away so that she couldn't use it. She'd been sealed?! As far as she knew, chakra sealing technology was only available to the Five Shinobi Nations' capital villages. Fuinjutsu was rare. Chakra seals were even moreso. Only masters could alter the flow of another's chakra without killing the recipient or damaging their systems beyond repair. Like she'd displayed with Kabuto, people just weren't meant to handle the unfiltered chakra of others in their bodies. It was the reason med-nin had to alter their own energies so much before healing patients.

Orochimaru seemed almost thoughtful as he explained, "The safest place to seal a person is around their Throat Chakra, according to the seal master that I have acquired. The seal is near no vital organs and won't damage the flow of life energy around the body. I wouldn't want you to die so soon. You have so very much work to do."

The snake in human skin reached through the bars of her cell. She prepared for an attack, dropping down into a crouch at the back of the cell. If he was going to try and touch her, she'd snap his bones. The killing aura that radiated outwardly from him only intensified, causing her knees to shake ever so slightly. She pressed her nails into the palms of her hands, breaking the skin. It was nice to have something to ground her, even if it was pain. The pain helped calm her senses. She tilted her chin up defiantly.

"I will never work for you." The flash of a memory appeared at the forefront of her mind. "I told your servant the same thing." She remembered why she was imprisoned, why she was so disgustingly filthy. "Before I killed him." That's right! She'd fought Kabuto and killed him! Kami-sama, she still couldn't believe it. She wondered if the poison that'd lingered in her system had affected her memory.

"Yes. You did kill my valuable assistant. I have yet to determine a suitable punishment for that particular grievance. I had considered just killing you, when I found you unconscious against a tree." The man leased a sadistic smile. "But I decided that it would be such a _waste_." He spat the word out like it was distasteful, like he would've been losing a valuable resource rather than killing another person.

"You should've just killed me," Sakura taunted, feeling safe in her corner, "because I'll never lift a finger to help you. Never! There is nothing on the Continent that I wouldn't do first!"

"Temper, Temper," Orochimaru hissed, mocking her by wagging his finger at her, like he was scolding a child. She bristled even more. "You should always hear out an offer before refusing it; where did you learn your manners? A gorilla?"

"Go walk off a cliff!"

"I'm perfectly happy standing right here, Sakura-chan. My, it seems I'll need to teach you respect. Your precious shishou certainly hasn't tried."

Sakura's teeth gnashed. "Don't talk about her so casually; a monster like you doesn't deserve to!"

"Surely I can reminisce about my beloved former teammate?" Orochimaru's head tilted and his mouth twisted at the corners. "I do so very much miss her company. After all, we fought together during the Second War. There were days that we spent together on those blood-soaked battlefields, tearing foreign shinobi part like rice paper. Wartime is so much easier because there are no pesky laws, no rules. You can kill indiscriminately, without hesitation or morality. Your shishou would bury her arms in the ribcages of her opponents and crush their still-beating hearts with ease." The snake painted a bloody, visceral picture in her mind's eye. "Tell me: does that make her a monster as well? All shinobi have done their fair share of killing. What separates Tsunade-hime and I? Our laurels? The fact that she's your Hokage and can do no wrong, while I was branded as mad?"

Orochimaru continued, voice growing ever louder. "You Leaf shinobi are all the same. You paint the world in black and white and make decisions about where you think people fit without keeping in mind that there is greyscale in between. There is no battle between Good and Evil, only one of opposing wills." The snake's molten eyes glittered. "You won't be able to hide in your little bubble of righteousness much longer, Sakura-chan. The Leaf isn't as good as years of indoctrination and brainwashing would have you believe. Work for me and I'll show you."

Sakura shook, somewhere between furious and disbelieving. "Are you honestly trying to convince me that you're not the villain everybody thinks you are? Because you'll never manage to sway my convictions. You tried to kill me when I was a _child_," she spat with contempt.

"My dear, naïve Sakura-chan, there are no children in the world of Shinobi. It didn't matter to me what your age was, just like your village doesn't care when they train you to fight and maim and kill by the time you graduate. I faced rival ninja that day, fellow participants in an exam designed to weed out the weak with whatever means necessary. The moment you don that Leaf insignia, you make peace with the fact that someday, somewhere you'll die at the hands of something stronger than yourself. That's the way of the world we live in."

He was right, she realized. The Chūnin Exam proctors had made it very clear that some of the teams would die, and that it was kill or be killed. Sakura and her team had gone into the Forest of Death—it was in the name, for Kami's sake—knowing, but not really believing, that they may come out in a body scroll. To face their own mortality had shocked the inexperienced Genin team to their core. Unlike the cursed mission in Wave, there was no ultra-powerful Jounin sensei to back them up. They'd made it out of the Second Exam through luck and nothing more. If Orochimaru hadn't attacked then, somebody else would've. The thought that he was right made Sakura angrier. No! He couldn't justify his actions so easily! Because true, honorable shinobi killed on orders. Orochimaru killed for pleasure, hunted for bloodsport. He'd made it clear how depraved he was by experimenting on the Leaf's own populace.

"You can't just explain away everything by being a shinobi," she sneered. "You preformed unauthorized medical tests on people! I read your case files. How can you justify that? That's not what shinobi do! We kill on command, but we don't remove innocent civilians from the population and mutilate them until they're unrecognizable!" Sakura's green eyes bored into his amber ones. There was no remorse in those eyes for his actions. She doubted he was even capable of the feeling, honestly. Monsters couldn't feel. To her surprise, the man started chuckling. The sound began deep down, somewhere in his chest, then devolved into an eerie cackle.

"Unauthorized medical testing is not what a shinobi does, is that right? We don't just kidnap helpless people and experiment on them? Is that a reason to hate a person?" His eyes _burned_ with mirth. "Then you must loathe your shishou."

"Don't you dare."

"Don't I dare tell you the truth? That Tsunade-hime of the Leaf and I were part of an elite squad during the Second War? That we were tasked by the Hokage himself to bring the citizens of Rain Country back to our encampment and test experimental poisons and healing techniques on them? That your shishou burned through countless bodies perfecting the poison removal technique she has you use in her hospital? That the experimental poison we developed during that war is the same one your Shizune-san coats her weaponry with? Did you know that in order to heal, somebody must first be injured? And The Third Hokage refused to allow us to run tests on fellow Leaf shinobi. But he had no such qualms with those of a foreign nation."

Orochimaru continued. "How many of those first aid procedures you use every day were perfected using a poor civilian from Rain? We'd break bones just to have her find the best way to heal them, sever arteries to watch the way the person bled out, burn skin to practice grafting. The War was the ultimate example of human experimentation, with your shishou's skills paving the way. Will you try to explain why she wasn't at fault? Was it different because we were in a warzone? Was it different because we were torturing residents of another country? If you admit that you hate me for this reason, then you must also blame your shishou for her fair share. Or you'll be a hypocrite, just like the rest of the Leaf. The village likes to pretend it doesn't have an ugly side. The pretty red paint on the Hokage tower is just a cover for the blackness beneath."

Tsunade-shishou had always dismissed Sakura's questions about the origin of her medical techniques. She would avert her honey colored eyes and simply chalk it up to years of research and luck. But Sakura could sense that something else lurked beneath the woman's matter-of-fact words. Who had they gotten to volunteer for the experimental treatments, Sakura had once asked. Tsunade-shishou had given her a strange look and responded that nobody had volunteered. Was that what her teacher had meant? No. Orochimaru was just preying on her weakness. He must've been because there was no way that her shishou had ever done anything so terrible!

Sakura's fighting stance fell way as she wobbled in place. Her back hit the brickwork behind her as she stopped to take in everything. Without a doubt, she hated the man in front of her. But if what he said was true, surely she should hate her shishou as well? If she didn't like the ugliness of killing without reason was she rejecting her Hokage and village? And in doing so, was she rejecting her own existence as a kunoichi? Hands fisted into themselves, with blunted fingernails digging bloody crescents into her palms. She tried to get a handle on her breathing and her own mind. He was lying. That was all there was to it. Orochimaru was a master of manipulation, a spider spinning a web—and she'd almost been entangled in it. A breath to center herself, then she pushed off the wall and began walking towards the cell door, unafraid of the villain beyond it.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sakura asked the man before her. "I don't believe any of what you're saying. It's not true," she stated, head held high. "You're nothing but a liar, a fraud. Nothing you say will ever sway my convictions. You will never turn me on my village or my loved ones. I won't betray them because that's my ninja way, my Will of Fire! So kill me or leave," she snapped, getting right into his face.

"Are you rejecting my generous job offer?" Orochimaru's eyes lit with irritation and the amused lilt of his face suddenly pulled down. "I think you'll find that you have no choice, Sakura-_chan_."

"Stop calling me that!" She screamed at him, pulling her fist back and forcing it towards his face with as much strength as she could muster. She was going to die. The thought sent shivers of fear down her spine. He was going to kill her. But that didn't stop her. Her body _moved_ and then she was launching a pitiful half-planned attack at one of the strongest people she'd ever met. The intelligent part of her berated her stupid actions, but the bloodthirsty part of her that was once Inner Sakura urged her on.

He lifted one of his arms—what had been bandage-wrapped human flesh was instantly transformed into the scaly upper body of a snake—and it coiled itself round her. The muscular body of the reptile halted her punch, just as the air from it stirred up Orochimaru's black hair. The man looked unfazed as he held her in his trap. It'd taken him no effort at all. Sakura wanted to scream, to cry. How dare he! How dare he mock her strength with his display! She felt like a weak Genin again, like a child needing to be protected by Kakashi-sensei. Shame raced down her spine. What had the past few years been for, then?! The fangs of the summoned snake sunk so deep into her shoulder that she felt the dig against her scapula. She cried out in pain. "There's that temper that I warned you about. It will only get you into trouble here."

The snake ripped away from her skin and disappeared back into his arm as it receded. The kunoichi grasped at her injured shoulder and shook. Note to Sakura, from Sakura: don't taunt the incredibly powerful psycho holding her captive. The shaking became fitful convulsions and she was reduced to a heap on the floor of her cell. He'd injected her with snake venom! In her weakened state and without chakra the toxic substance would wreak havoc on her body. She couldn't break it down, couldn't isolate it. A part of her felt disgusted that he'd put any part of his body near hers. She'd cut that stupid arm off if she could! She could still probably break bones easily, even without her chakra. A dark promise to shatter everything in his body rooted itself firmly in her mind.

Orochimaru turned to walk away. "I'll leave you to cool off and think about working together. After all, I need you, Sakura-chan. That present I gave you should keep you from further destroying your cell." He smiled in her direction before moving out of view. The calls of pain outside her cell grew in volume once again. It was as though the sight of him was enough to bring the other prisoners torment. Sakura shared the same sentiment.

Her teeth grit together and she let out a strangled groan. Kami-sama, it burned! Fire licked up her veins and caused her heart to beat a frantic tattoo in her chest. Her lungs struggled to get in air through her rapidly-closing windpipe. Each new convulsion forced her deeper and deeper into fetal position. The shudders wracked her with such power that she felt as though her stomach was trying to leap from her chest. Nauseas, she dry heaved. Having already purged her stomach of its contents the night before, while breaking down Kabuto's poison, there was nothing left to expel. Saliva drippled down her cheek and dripped onto the filthy floor. Sakura could barely lift her head to keep it from dipping it into the small disgusting puddle.

It hurt! The pain was a million times worse than any boulder Tsunade-shishou had launched her way. It was far worse than what her heart had gone through as it was stomped on again and again by her teammates. Each breath she let out fought to become a sob, but she clenched her teeth. She'd sooner die than let him hear her cries of pain. He wouldn't get the satisfaction. In anger and agony, Sakura's fist slammed into the floor next to her face, creating a fine network of webbed cracks beneath it. When she lifted her hand away from the impact point bits of packed stone followed it, clattering to the floor. Damn him! Her fist hit the floor again and again until Sakura was certain something was broken. Dan him! She let out a roar of anger, which echoed down the hallway and was promptly drowned out by the others' wails.

:.:

Sakura's jaw hurt from clenching her teeth shut, from trying to keep her whimpers and howls of pain bottled up. Hours had passed. Or days? Like a snake on its belly, time slithered by. It was maddening. Every millisecond was little more than a swirling vortex of pain and disorientation and more pain. Her shoulder felt like it was melting—maybe it was; she wasn't certain which snake's venom she'd been hit with and some could liquefy flesh. Was this what Sasuke had felt like when he'd received his seal from Orochimaru? Sakura's inner eye remembered how he'd grasped at the wound and screamed. He'd sounded like a wounded animal. It'd had given her nightmares for weeks.

Beneath the pain, a horrifying thought was splayed at the forefront of her mind: had she been given the Curse Seal as well?

No. From what Sakura understood, the Cursed Seal had a chance to kill its host. If Orochimaru wanted her that badly, he wouldn't dare try. She wouldn't survive it without access to chakra anyway. The Seal was a parasite, latching onto the host's chakra system and corrupting it. She'd have no first line of defense against the onslaught of foreign energy. It'd take her body over and destroy it from within.

Sakura's small frame was alight with red hot agony. Like fire through her veins, the venom coursed through her system. Underneath it, she felt the telltale development of sores and bruises for having held her position for so long. She was half aware that she was lying in her own bodily fluids. Breathing through her nose, the kunoichi clamped her lips shut and attempted to roll over to a cleaner part of the floor. The movement forced her stiff muscles to cramp up and the pain mingled with the fire coursing through her veins. It created a cocktail of something quite unlike anything Sakura had felt before. She'd been crushed under heavy objects, burned, cut, beaten. But this? This was _Hell._ The movement of her frozen joints was enough to almost break her vow of silence.

For the first time since the torture started, she opened her eyes. The lashes where glued together with her own tears. To her surprised and horror, the room undulated and twisted. It was as though a layer of oil had been poured over her eyes. The scene wiggled, lunged, lurched, and bounced back into place. Sakura swore her bed was crawling closer to her while the door was bending outwards. Kami, she was hallucinating! Trying to still the movement of the room, she searched wildly for anything to focus on. The patterned brickwork walls danced in time to unseen music. The bed seemed to breathe as it edged ever closer to her. The bars of the cell door were reaching outwards, trying to tear the whole thing from its hinges.

And beyond the bars…

Orochimaru's twisted grin was etched onto his pale, bloodless lips as he watched her suffering. Had he been drawn in by the display of her pain? It was probably some sick show for him. Sakura opened her mouth to hurl insults, to spew out the venom that was in her veins and show him what she was going through. What came out instead was a demented howl. She sounded like a wounded animal.

Orochimaru's sinister shape seemed to contort in time with the rest of the room despite the fact that he didn't move a muscle. He just stood outside her door, watching. Was he just a hallucination? Was he a figment of her imagination? She damned her own mind if so. What an ugly thing to show her while she was suffering. The hallucination smirked and began speaking. Sakura seemed to receive his words through a layer of syrup. They were thick and squirmed in her ears like insects. The thought made her shiver.

"You should know, my dear, that Tsunade-hime has sent out a search party for you. It seems that you were due to return two days ago. Shizune-san is heading the party and they should be arriving at the border with Hot Water within the evening. They will, of course, find no trace of you or I there. You'll simply have vanished without a trace."

How did he know that? Was he keeping tabs on her village?

The Hallucination twisted and turned into itself, but she could still make out that horribly smug expression that occupied its face. "And the hospital is in a state of confusion without its two head surgeons. Tsunade-hime has placed all reports and projects on hold until you've been found. The Elder Council has moved in like vultures, using her response to your disappearance to decry her leadership skills. They demand that she either brand you missing ninja or declare you dead. She refuses to do either, and is suspicious of how quickly they're dismissing you as lost. Of course, she'll cave and do one or the either eventually. The Council is particularly convincing, you'll find."

That was… That was insider information! It was like he'd been there, a fly on the wall! Did he have another spy in the village? How high up for them to be aware of the rather quiet tension between the Elders and Tsunade-shishou? Not even the Jounin commander, Nara Shikaku-san, was aware of how often the two parties butted heads. Sakura growled and urged her body to crawl forward, despite it feeling like it was made of fire and stone. The image of the Sannin before here never seemed to get any clearer and the door felt like it was a million miles away.

"Curiously, the Yamanaka Clan head seems to have taken a special interest in your case and has even volunteered his clansmen for the search. His own daughter is part of the party currently on route to your last location. Such a pretty thing, too. She'd make a lovely body, with that Kekkei Genkai of hers…" Ino! Sakura growled at the man outside of her cell. It didn't make a difference. He continued. "The Inuzuka Clan heir is with them, and he seems particularly motivated too. A crush, maybe? The Nara and Akimichi Clan heirs are among the party as well. It seems you've made some very powerful friends, Sakura-chan. A great feat for a no-name civilian girl."

"A-are you w-w-wa..." Sakura struggled for breath, "watching t-them?" How did he know all this? "You have a s-ss-py. Like Kabuto." Kabuto had once been Orochimaru's spy within the village walls; he was the adopted son of the former hospital head, if she was remembering correctly. The fuzz over her mind made it hard to think.

"Ah. So keen, so clever," Orochimaru praised. "I have a great ally within the village, my dear. How else would I have known about your attempts to find Sasuke-kun? You came so very, very close to finding us. You would have, had we not moved bases the moment my source caught wind of your little retrieval missions. You certainly kept us on the run."

Sakura gasped, the action sending pain throughout her nerves. They'd thought they were chasing smoke and rumors when she and Naruto had been hunting for the Uchiha to bring him home. And they would've had him back in their grasp if it hadn't been for a traitor in the village?! The pink haired woman let out a cry of frustration and snapped her curled fist into the ground near her face. They'd been so close to Sasuke-kun the entire time? Her fist impacted the earthen floor again, leaving an indentation. They could've had Sasuke-kun home! They could've been a team again! She wished she had the strength to do more than pulverize the ground. She wanted to start with the bastard that'd sold their village out. Her fist began to feel heavy as she rammed it into the cracking floor again and again. For the first time since her captivity, she began to cry in earnest. Her shoulders trembled weakly with sobs. There was suddenly very little care that the snake was observing her with his cold eyes.

The man allowed her to cry on the floor. He watched but did not speak until she grew too weak to continue and quieted down. Don't waste your energy on such pointless things, Sakura-chan. You have a long road ahead of you." His voice was surprisingly gentle. It was an admonishment, like a parent disapproving of their toddler's tears. Sakura didn't even have the energy to turn away from him. "I'll have somebody retrieve you soon. I hope that by then you'll be ready to hear what I have to say."

Letting out a shaky breath, Sakura clamped her eyes closed. When she opened them, she was certain he'd be gone. When she looked up next, his dark form had vanished. So, he'd been a hallucination then? Had she imagined the whole exchange? The cracks she'd made on the floor were still there, and she was too tired and in pain to analyze further. Was she able to trust her eyes and ears? The room still warped and writhed around her. There was a faint grinding sound at the corners of her perception that hadn't been there before. Were the hallucinations growing in intensity? Sakura wasn't quite sure.

:.:

(Forty thousand, forty thousand and one, forty thousand and two…)

Sakura tried in vain to occupy herself with counting the seconds that passed. It was a routine, a distraction. She tried to separate herself as far from her body as she could. The distance counting created still wasn't enough. Pain wracked her frame over and over. It'd grown from a constant burn into a pulsing inferno. In between counting, she tried focusing on her precious people. Would she ever see them again? Sakura's insides twisted when she realized that she would probably die there, on that filthy floor in Orochimaru's base. Her prone form shivered and shook.

Hours passed. The pink haired kunoichi focused deep within herself. She stayed occupied with her memories, her dreams, her fantasies. Anything to separate herself. Further, further she moved away from her broken body and deeper into her thoughts.

(Fifty thousand and six, fifty thousand and seven, fifty thousand and eight…)

Sakura thought of her parents, who'd loved her fiercely and unconditionally. Haruno Kizashi and Mebuki were parents that Sakura knew was rare amongst ninja children. They were incredibly patient with her as she grew up, incredibly supportive of her silly dream of becoming a kunoichi. They didn't rush her schooling or pressure her for consistent improvement. Sakura had seen the way children from clans were treated, and had decided very early on that she was lucky to have her mom and dad. Despite both her parents being Chūnin, Sakura had possessed little natural talent. But it's often said that talent can't compete with hard work. Knowing that the Academy wouldn't be able to truly nurture their little flower, they took it upon themselves to teach Sakura all the finer points of being a kunoichi.

Mebuki was a traditionalist woman with a reserved demeanor. Once she'd been an expert in infiltration and assassination, but she'd retired after becoming pregnant with Sakura. Ever since, she'd been a heavy hitter in the spice trade, using her kunoichi wit to crush rival traders underneath the heel of her sandals. It was Mebuki who passed her kunoichi training off to Sakura. The two had arranged flowers together, conducted elaborate tea ceremonies, and practiced calligraphy until they were both covered in ink. Her mother's smiles and praise were rare, but encouraged the young girl to push forward.

Sakura's father was a jolly man. He was always cracking jokes, unlike his wife. Kizashi was an active shinobi that worked as a desk jockey in T&I. He was rarely sent on missions, if ever. He possessed little in the way of combat ability, instead focusing on the more intellectual side of being a ninja. It was he who'd sat down with Sakura and helped instill into her a love of reading and knowledge. They broke code, studied inter-clan politics and chakra theory, and calculated the success of strategical maneuvers in the field. It was far easier to Sakura than her kunoichi training, though Sakura would never tell her mother that. In fact, the brainy stuff was the only thing she was inarguably good at. Every time the young girl would bring home an aced test, he father would practically cry tears of joy.

She missed them so much. Had she told them goodbye before her mission? She couldn't even remember.

(Sixty thousand and two hundred thirty eight, sixty thousand and two hundred thirty nine, sixty thousand and two hundred forty…)

Next, her mind travelled to Ino. The Yamanaka had once been her best and only friend. She had helped her stand up to bullies and find her own beauty. Sakura had always admired—and been a little jealous of—Ino's pretty platinum hair and teal eyes. The young kunoichi-to-be looked up to Ino, respected her. Maybe that was why, when Ino had confessed she had a crush on the boy Sakura liked, it had felt like betrayal. The two had parted in heated words, declaring themselves rivals over Sasuke-kun. Sakura was hurt inside by the act, but was too prideful to reconcile. There had been plenty of moments to try to mend bridges and extinguish their smoldering disdain of each other while training for the Chūnin exams; Sakura had wanted to try, but she was worried Ino didn't feel the same.

Now they might never make up.

Sakura's thoughts drifted to her teammates. She could've used Naruto's bright enthusiasm and boundless strength. There were days when she missed him, even though she'd called him annoying so many times during their Genin days. She wanted to take all the unkind words she'd ever hurled at him and shove them back into her mouth and swallow them down. He'd never deserved them. Never. She was the annoying one; Sasuke-kun had pointed that out.

Sasuke-kun… Would she even see him? He'd come to Orochimaru, so surely he was in the compound? Then again, maybe he was aware of her presence and didn't care enough to visit her. The thought hurt more than the venom in her bloodstream. Sakura wanted to laugh, to cry. It hurt so bad! She'd been infatuated with the stupid Uchiha during her Genin days. Like a blind fool she'd shoved her unwanted love towards him hoping that eventually he'd warm up to her. It'd taken him leaving for her to realize that she'd pushed him away without creating the same bonds that _Naruto_ of all people had with him. He'd left her, uncaringly, unconscious on a cold stone bench and crying tears even as she slept. Sakura still cared about the Uchiha, still loved him; she just honestly wasn't sure what kind of love her battered heart was still able to give. Would he make her chest ache or would she love him like she did Naruto, like a friend?

Kakashi-sensei was an unknown in Sakura's mind. She'd once been infatuated with her sensei—not in a romantic sense because that thought made her turn a little green—because of his strong desire to protect them and his own combat ability. Sakura's little Genin mind had been blown away when she'd watched him go toe-to-toe with Zabuza in Wave. He was awesome! She was certain he could turn her into a strong kunoichi! Then he'd all but ignored her and Naruto in favor of training Sasuke. At first, she'd been annoyed. Then, she was angry. Sakura wasn't certain when she'd started to resent her Genin sensei. It'd bubbled up into her chest one day while she was trying to pick up the pieces of her team. The wound of Naruto leaving was still fresh and she'd been aimlessly wandering and searching for something tangible to hold. Kakashi-sensei and she had crossed paths; she'd called to him, desperate for something familiar; he'd looked her right in the eye and vanished in a cloud of smoke. In that moment, she'd hated him. He was abandoning her, just like all the others had. Her mother had held her that night while she cried about the unfairness of it all. The resentment had cooled into something a bit more like disappointment over the years.

(Seventy thousand and seven hundred sixty one, seventy thousand and seven hundred sixty two, seventy thousand and seven hundred sixty three…)

Tsunade-shishou had filled that spot in her heart, the one that'd once belonged to Kakashi-sensei. She'd been the rock in Sakura's life. Tsunade-shishou was the soil that tethered her roots to the ground. With her mentor had some something of an older sister in the form of Shizune—who was the niece of somebody very, very dear to the slug Sannin. Sakura remembered long shifts at the hospital under Shizune's gentle teachings and even longer ones under Tsunade-shishou's firm corrections. The three would hole up in the Hokage's office, filling out paperwork that Tsunade-shishou was too busy (or drunk) to do. There, Sakura had learned the intricacies of inter-village politics and internal affairs. Shizune had been the one to escort her to Hot Water Country for the first time to rest in the hot springs, despite the fact that they'd been sent as liaisons to deliver a new trade agreement. The two women had splashed and played in the onsen until they'd been kicked out. Tsunade-shishou had been well past hammered when they returned and had reprimanded them by tossing her desk out a window.

Sakura missed them. She missed the moments, the memories. Fear curled in her belly, coiling like a serpent, when she realized that she'd probably never make memories again. She wanted the happy times and the sad times and all the little moments in between! She didn't want to die. Not here. Not like this. She still had to save Sasuke-kun and beat Ino-pig in a rematch and surpass Tsunade-shishou's teachings!

She didn't want to die.

But more than that, she had to get back somehow and warn them. There was a spy in the village, helping Orochimaru. It was somebody with great skills or power or influence. Whomever it was, they knew secrets that they shouldn't have been privy to. And that scared Sakura more than the idea of her own death was that somebody was within the supposed safety of the Leaf's walls and ferrying information to one of their greatest enemies. All of Sakura's precious people were in grave danger and they didn't even know it.

(Eighty thousand and two hundred four…)

Somehow, she had to get back and get out. She had to buy herself enough time to make an escape plan. She'd do anything.

Even sell her soul to a Shinigami.

:.:

Sakura could feel her nails digging into the soft flesh of her shoulder. The sensation was buried somewhere underneath the intense agony. The venom seemed to only grow more potent as time passed. She gritted her teeth and opened her eyes. Her vision swam, murky and dark. She was suddenly back in that cave, pummeling Kabuto even as she was drowning. Her breath came out in panicked bursts. To her horror and surprise she could _feel _the strong current of the water as it dragger her further down. Kabuto's hands were buried in the torn red cloth of her shirt, keeping her anchored to the bottom. She was hallucinating again.

The pink-haired woman tried to steady her breathing against the sudden influx of sensation. Her fists continued striking the man underneath her. Despite the fact that she knew he should've let go long ago—like he'd done the first time they'd fought, when it'd been real—his grip was iron-clad. His blood floated up into her face, obscuring her eyes and getting sucked into her nose and throat with every breath. There was no water, just blood _blood bloodblood. _The sickening sensation of her fingers plunging into his ribcage over and over made her want to be violently ill.

She was two hundred thousand seconds into the torture: two days. The hallucinations had gone from lilting vision and vertigo straight into waking nightmares that she couldn't escape from. They'd clouded her mind and stomped out all of her memories. She was dehydrated and starving and weak without chakra or sleep. If she didn't get care soon, she _would_ die. She'd die and all of her precious people would be left wondering what ever became of their dear Sakura. Her mother and father would be devastated. And everybody else? They'd probably want revenge, justice. Or maybe she was overestimating her value? Would anybody even care if she was gone? She could simply vanish and never be thought about again. Would her name end up on that stone that Kakashi-sensei liked to wallow at?

The hallucinations tormented her every second. Sometimes, she relived the worst moments of her life: The mission in Wave, Sasuke-kun leaving, Naruto nearly dying, him leaving as well, her horrible fight with Kabuto. In between the incredibly vivid rehashing of her lowest moments came the specters that lingered just beyond her cell door. At first, only Orochimaru's terrifying shadow darkened her doorway. Then she swore that, however briefly, she'd seen the telltale flash of Sharingan. The figure had ghosted in front of her door and made eye contact with her only long enough for her to see the spark of crimson in his eyes. Then, he was gone.

It was like he'd never been there. The whole thing had happened so fast that Sakura was certain it was part of her ongoing fever dream. Orochimaru's appearances were blink and miss too. It made Sakura wonder if she was beginning to experience brain death. Surely the venom alone was enough to kill her, but everything else seemed to only exacerbate her condition.

Occasionally she tuned in to a horrible high pitched scream, only to realize that it was coming from her own raw throat.

It was second two hundred thousand and five hundred when a woman approached the door to Sakura's cell. Sakura's bleary vision couldn't discern notable features, but she had red, red hair. Like blood, Sakura noted tiredly. The woman flitted into the pink-haired girl's cell with her chin held at a haughty angle. Through her wavering vision, Sakura was able to see the woman's open toe black boots as they came to rest right in front of her face. The Leaf kunoichi would've moved to incapacitate the other, had she been physically able. She'd start with breaking the redhead's legs so she couldn't follow, then crush her larynx so she wasn't able to scream. It wouldn't be fatal, necessarily. But it would buy Sakura time. Frustrated by her own weakness, the young woman wrapped one of her shaking hands around the redhead's ankle and squeezed with all her might. It was a sad attempt. She had nothing left.

"I wouldn't even try it. Orochimaru-sama's venom is designed to sap the life out of its victims. You wouldn't even be able to break a toothpick, not in the state you're in." The woman's voice, while high pitched and slightly nasally, was cold and clinical. There was no warmth, no sympathy. Thankfully, she seemed to lack the reverence for the snake Sannin that Kabuto had possessed; Sakura could tell just from the way she uttered his name. "Now, are you going to come along quietly?"

Go? Where? Sakura's petal pink eyebrows crinkled. To Orochimaru?

The pink haired kunoichi licked her lips and attempted to sit up against the brick wall of her cell. The redhead seemed impressed by the display because she straightened up and regarded Sakura's form with interest. The vindictive part of Sakura was baring her teeth and daring the other woman to come closer, to give her an opportunity to prove that she "couldn't even break a toothpick". Outside, though, the Leaf shinobi was tired and in pain. Any reprieve was fine by her. Besides, she'd made up her mind a long time ago.

The redhead was dressed in a lavender top that revealed her navel and a pair of tight black shorts that showed off lithe legs. The woman wasn't as heavily muscled as Sakura, but was clearly a kunoichi as well. One side of her fiery hair was jagged and rough, sticking up at odd angles and seemingly being rather untamable. The other side, in a strange dichotomy, was perfectly smooth and sleek. The other woman boasted keen carmine eyes which were hidden behind square thick-rimmed glasses. For some reason, Sakura recognized the woman. Her normally flawless memory was obscured through a pain-and-exhaustion-induced haze. It was maddening, knowing a face but not being able to place it.

The woman took her silence as acquiescence and expertly injected a clear serum into Sakura's arm. The pink haired medic watched the other closely, wary of her intentions. The redhead had some sort of medical training, given how she expertly handled the needle and found Sakura's veins with ease. It seemed like all of Orochimaru's important lackeys had at least basic knowledge. That made sense, given that the madman's sole purpose seemed to be committing monstrously immoral medical taboos. Kabuto had probably been the most skilled. Orochimaru had offered her a position among his staff, most likely as Kabuto's replacement. She'd killed him, after all. The thought made her let out a grin.

"You're pretty arrogant, aren't you? Smiling in Orochimaru-sama's base? You must think pretty highly of yourself," the redhead muttered. She leveled a glare in Sakura's direction.

"I'm smiling because I was reminiscing about how I killed your boss's favorite tool." Sakura fronted with a bloodthirsty smirk, despite how tired she felt inside. It was a bluff and the redhead seemed to know from her unimpressed look.

"None of us liked Kabuto. As far as I'm concerned, you did us a favor." The woman turned her nose up at Sakura. "Now get up. Orochimaru-sama won't be happy if you slow us down."

The Leaf kunoichi's knees quaked as she stood up. The syringe had most likely had antivenom of some sort in it. Already, she was regaining her strength. The fire that'd once crawled through her veins was reduced to a barely-there throbbing. Stiff limbs were stretched out using what little space was offered by the small cell. When she felt that her abused muscles were sufficiently limbered up, she pushed herself off the wall. The redhead didn't offer to help Sakura walk in any way and Sakura wouldn't have taken the assistance even if she had. The redhead stared, not at Sakura, but at the damaged wall behind her. Then her crimson eyes surveyed the countless cracks in the floor.

Sakura gave the other woman another smirk and cast her green gaze towards the cell door, where the metal was still bent so far from its original shape. The redhead's appraisal followed and the other woman blanched. Maybe she was regretting mocking Sakura's strength earlier? It always filled the pink haired woman with glee when enemies were shocked an impressed by her strength. It was a rush.

The redhead coughed into her hand and looked away from the warped door. She put her hand on her hips and assumed an aggressive stance, probably trying to save face after being so blatantly shocked in front of the prisoner. "D-don't think I'm threatened by you, Pinkie! I'll have you know that I'm one of Orochimaru-sama's most trusted. If you so much as lay a hand on me, he'll—"

"He'll what? I killed his second in command and in return he offered me a job. How would you be any different?" Sakura felt good again, having a little power after it was snatched from her grasp. Her chakra was gone, but her tongue was a weapon as sharp as ever and her strength would be back soon enough. "Don't threaten me. If that's what I did to wrought iron, imagine what I can do to your bones," she implied what would no doubt be a painful experience. "Just take me to your boss so I can hear what he has to say."

The redhead was at a loss for words, jaw hanging open in stunned disbelief. Sakura brushed past her, uncaring that she was being rude. Normally Sakura was polite to a fault, but she wouldn't waste that sensibility on Orochimaru's dog's. Outside of the cell were three men clad head to toe in the Sound Village's signature greyscale camouflage uniform. As though to drive her point further home, they wore the music note insignia on their ninja headbands. They were muscular, probably Chūnin level. Sakura allowed herself to be cuffed and led away by the men.

The redhead followed her out of the cell, screeching and hollering abut _something_. Sakura was too busty bserving the sad souls in the cells the party passed. One cell was full of children, she noted in quiet horror. They were terribly malnourished and covered in scratching and bruising and stitches. Sakura's teeth gnashed together as she struggled once again to get a handle on her wild temper. Forget breaking Orochimaru's bones; she was going to tear them all from his body one by one while he was alive. She met eyes with a thin and sickly looking woman. The prisoner's eyes were glazed, like she was going blind. Sakura swallowed down her feelings of anger and unease and set her sights before her. The redhead was leading them. At her sides were two of the masked Sound shinobi, each one supporting one of her arms and aiding her in the long walk. Another masked man kept to the rear of the party. Sakura could feel his eyes drilling into her back.

As she made her way down the corridor, listening to the cries of the unfortunate souls that'd been taken from their homes by a madman, she vowed to find some way to help them. Bile rose in her throat. Even if that meant ending their torment.

:.:

_To Be Continued…_

:.:

**Author's Note: **Gosh, this chapter was hard to write! Orochimaru is hard to write; he's the reason this took so long… Such an interesting villain psyche. Orochimaru is pretty much a slimeball who can't see that he's evil. In his mind, everything he does is justified. Will see more of his character as time progresses! Sakura is less of a crybaby in this than in Canon. She was borderline useless after the Gaara Retrieval Arc so I want to redeem her. She's going to make a semi-realistic progression from Basic Canon Sakura to BAMF Sakura. That's the end goal right now. So she'd going to be very sassy and tough. I like strong Sakura.

Shisui will show up in the next chapter. Sorta…

Thank you everybody for your kind reviews! This is honestly way more love than I expected for a story that I basically threw out onto the internet one day. You guys are seriously awesome! I love to hear from you guys!

_Special thanks to those who favorited and followed this story._


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